f lava, this pavement is lava, those
columns are lava, that elephant over the fountain is sculptured in lava,
this is lava, that is lava, everything is lava; even those--"

"Stop, stop," interrupted the buffo, "for pity's sake stop, or I shall
begin to think that you and I also are made of lava."

We reached the Birraria Svizzera and sat down.

"Are you hungry, Buffo?"

"I am always hungry. My subterranean road is always ready."

"That's capital," I replied. "And what particular fugitive would you
like to send down it now?"

"Seppia and interiori di pollo," he replied without hesitation.

Now the first of these is cuttle-fish and looks as though the cook in
sending to table something that ought to have been thrown away had tried
to conceal it by emptying a bottle of ink into the dish; the second is
un-selected giblets. So I replied:

"Very well; but I don't think I'll join you. No one will believe I am a
Sicilian unless I eat maccaroni, and perhaps I will have a veal cutlet
afterwards; that will be more suited to my subterranean road."

"You had better have what I have," said he, "it is exquisite."

"Not to-day," I replied gently.

So we ate our dinner and discussed what we should do during the evening.
He wanted to go to the marionette theatre, and I was not surprised, for I
remembered that the vergers of Westminster Abbey and of Salisbury
Cathedral spend their holidays making tours to visit other cathedrals;
cooks go to Food Exhibitions; Scotch station-masters come to London and
spend their time in the Underground railways; and English journalists
when they meet on an outing, say to one another:

"It is a foggy morning; let us go in and split three or four
infinitives."

So I took him to the Teatro Sicilia and introduced him to the proprietor,
Gregorio Grasso, a half-brother of Giovanni Grasso, and we went behind
the scenes to study the difference between the Catanian and the
Palermitan systems. He was first struck by the immense size of the place
as compared with his own little theatre; next by the orchestra which,
instead of being a mechanical piano turned by a boy, consisted of a
violin, a guitar and a double-bass played by men; and finally by the
manner of manipulating the figures, which distressed him so seriously
that he forgot he was a Portuguese gentleman and began to give Gregorio a
lesson to show him how much better we do things in Palermo; but it came
to nothing, because a method that pr